The Prime Minister is not giving the details away yet; they will be announced by Michael Forsyth, the Scottish Secretary, in a few weeks' time. But he said: "People in Scotland, who often feel cut off from parliamentary debate in London want better a...

People who have mobile phones won't know about all this - indeed, people may well buy mobile phones for the single puritanical purpose of getting away from the constant array of prostitutes' cards they are forced to look at in phone boxes - but I kno...

Ah, yes, says Derbyshire, but it's not so simple. True, no one had objected to Brian Godfrey's sidewalk plums, and yes, there had been no accidents or incidents, but the law is the law. "Pavements are for people and have to be kept free of obstructio...

Your reaction matters a great deal to the economists who are watching the dispute at Ford over the management's pay offer of 4.75 per cent. If pay settlements start rising following the Ford example, we could be in for the wage boom that the Bank of ...

Sir Alastair Morton, chairman of Eurotunnel, has continually criticised the ferry industry for "suicidal" price wars and other such competitive activity. Indeed, according to him, it is the actions of the ferry industry which have done so much to des...

In the Liberal Democrat group, we have been pressing for a few simple changes that could quickly bring results. First, the European Commission needs a bigger stick to wave at the member states if it is to persuade them to act. In some areas it can wi...

Once he brought Sinn Fein into the process, he created conditions which made an Irish settlement only possible by bilateral negotiations between the two sovereign governments.
It is not just that the Unionists will not sit down with - as they see it ...

This is not true. CJD occurs round the world with a relatively constant incidence, including countries that are free of both scrapie and BSE. In 1994, the incidence of CJD in the UK was lower than in the Netherlands and in Austria, which are both fre...

Four years ago, after manufacturing in Pusan City on the south coast of Korea for more than 20 years, a Japanese company closed a factory manufacturing exactly the same product as Chungwha will be making in Scotland. Three thousand people lost their ...

Ecstasy, by contrast, is an illegal drug that is not licensed for the treatment of any medical condition.
Yours faithfully,
Joanna Nakielny
Associate Medical Director
Lilly Industries
Basingstoke, Hampshire
15 November

If the show goes out live - in other words, in its full spontaneity - it is not going to be filmed. But it doesn't go out live; nor is it filmed: it is recorded on tape.
Videotape is as important a medium as film. It's a pity that commentators and ev...

But this situation would have changed dramatically if the nomination of Iri and Toshi Maruki for this year's Nobel Peace Prize had been successful. It would have been the first time (long overdue) that artistic efforts for peace had been honoured in ...

Tompkins's early studies of adsorption (the taking-up of gases by surfaces) on solid surfaces were on polar solids but, although this was always maintained as an interest, perhaps his best known contributions to adsorption studies were on metal surfa...

High politics it wasn't, neither in the debate nor in the ideas being debated. The most interesting thought of the day came from Tony Blair when he suggested that the asylum and immigration measures be put before a standing committee of the Commons, ...

MacKeith was an idealist especially interested in the social aspects of medicine and was for many years an active member of the Keppel Club, with a membership concerned with social issues. He unstintingly sought, by using forward planning and innovat...

Holt was born in Hammersmith, west London, the son of a panelbeater, in 1912. He first learnt about fine wood as an apprentice cabinet-maker; and in his boatbuilding career he put his knowledge of the difference between good wood and very good wood t...

Sir: Dick van den Broek, Shell's regional co-ordinator for Africa, argues (Another View, 13 November) against a boycott of the brutal Nigerian regime for reasons of self-interest dressed up as concern for the Nigerian people. However, Shell must acce...

Sir: The Commission on Children and Violence is right to point out the links between "macho male attitudes" and aggressive, antisocial behaviour (report, 9 November). However, to understand fully violent criminality, we need also to recognise that it...

Now, your Highness (if I may call you that), there is a sense in which the fact of this interview is more important than anything in the interview itself, is it not?
I am afraid you will have to explain that to me. You see, I am just a silly empty-he...

Sir: The balance between arguing the moral case and the economic case for equal opportunities depends very much on the nature of the business being addressed (Letters, 9 November). The recent government/industry review of the construction industry ca...

Whatever she says, it bodes ill for the Queen's conception of the monarchy. But that is probably no bad thing. The Princess could be the catalyst for some necessary and positive changes.
Let's face it, the present monarchy sits uneasily with our mode...

This princess was positively born to broadcast. What is more, she has tried turning the other silken cheek and stiffening her (subtly glossed) upper lip, and where has it dumped her? Up to her swan neck in the seething effluent of malevolent speculat...

Her speech to Parliament described a menu for the forthcoming session which, ministers admit in private, has been chosen to give Labour indigestion. The crackdown on asylum-seekers and the benefits they receive is meant to make Labour look soft on im...

Sir: You propose (leading article; "The agony of Ecstasy", 14 November) that Ecstasy should be brought within the law but you give no consideration to the complex problems this would create.
For example, all legitimate drugs have to have a proven tra...

Sir: There can be no doubt the National Lottery has delivered to Britain a capacity for greater funding of sport, charities and the arts than previously possible. But the success of the National Lottery is not limited to its achievements to date; a g...

Sir: In your profiles of men who might aspire to be press barons ("To be king of the fourth estate" 14 November), you mentioned the chairman of this company and said that Mohamed al-Fayed has probably resigned himself to doing without a knighthood, w...

Sir: I would just like to point out that although Nicholas Schoon is correct in his statement that wind farms currently generate around one- thousandth of Britain's electricity production ("Vote of confidence in future of rubbish-to-power brokers", 3...

The Government is trying to measure the environmental damage of major road schemes: to what extent people living near a road suffer as a result of additional noise, dirt and other pollution. Obviously, town by-passes, which reduce urban traffic, will...

Sir: Perhaps pregnant women living on benefit need educating ("Mothers' poor eating puts babies at risk", 14 November).
How about making soup: a marrow bone (a few pence from the butcher), root vegetables, perhaps a tin of tomatoes and some lentils, ...

Vaganyan's horror came against Vassily Ivanchuk. The idea of playing dxe4 for Black on move three or four of the French Defence has been popular in recent years. The bishop on c8, traditionally the problem piece in this opening, plays to d7, c6 and i...

Sir: The law is quite clear. The directors of a limited company must manage its affairs in the best interests of its shareholders. They must put ethical considerations aside.
The directors of Shell would do well to keep those principles firmly in min...

Sir: Your article "Shell defies calls to pull out of oil operations" (13 November) states that Amnesty International is one of several organisations "united in the belief that there should be international oil sanctions" against Nigeria. In fact Amne...

Sir: Your suggestion that "Ecstasy must be brought within the law" (14 November) is based on an incorrect assumption. By focussing on the possible adverse effects of contaminants you have missed the crucial point that unadulterated Ecstasy is not saf...

No ho-ho-ho
At the first World Santa Claus Championship in Greenland, the early leader, Bob Massey of Australia, lost his chance when his beard caught on the tinsel of a Christmas tree. Joergen Roslund (Denmark) took the title, climbing a 6ft chimney...

Sixteen was a number of deep significance in ancient India. A complete person was considered to consist of 16 parts, there were 16 signs of aesthetic beauty and the ideal adornment was considered to comprise 16 pieces of jewellery.
In the case of the...